Category Archives: New Projects

I just finished a new concrete wall sculpture that I am calling “Moonlight Rendezvous”. The narrative of the piece is meant to evoke feelings of forbidden desire, clandestine meetings, and star-crossed lovers. Its basically, Animal Planet meets Romeo and Juliet, detailed in vibrantly hand colored concrete.

I enjoy playing with contrasting elements in my sculpture work. If you’re familiar with cats or crows, they both have reputations for being somewhat moody and opinionated. Its hard to imagine that the relationship depicted here will progress much past the courtship phase.

Corbels are, basically, fancy brackets that extend out from a wall and may support weight. The function of a corbel may also be purely decorative. I am creating this as a decorative piece for a garden setting, but it could be used as a small shelf or shelf bracket as well.

The scale of this corbel is on the small side; 7″ tall, 4″ wide, 4″ deep. The final material will be cast concrete, perfect for any outdoor environment. The image shown here is the clay model in progress. When I’m finished with the sculpting, I will make a rubber mold for casting. I plan to post images and details of the molding process for folks that may be interested in how molds are made.

Below is a front view of the corbel.

I haven’t talked about the word, grotesque here yet. In the simplest terms, a grotesque is similar to a gargoyle, but without a water spout. They are meant to be somewhat ugly caricatures, silly or comic renditions of humans, animals or other mythological beasties. In addition, a grotesque (or a gargoyle) sculpture may include some decorative accents such as flowers, fruit, curly cue designs, etc. Living in San Francisco for many years contributed to my interest, and appreciation for this type of ornate design. (or maybe I’m just a bit off kilter…

I’ve been working on a project with a good friend of mine, Dave Doherty, on a relief tile that commemorates the now deceased, Pacific Ocean Park (POP), an amusement and theme park that once existed in Santa Monica, CA.I’m posting a picture of the sculpture I just finished here. I’m working on the first casting of the tile, and will be offering it as a concrete tile, which can be purchased on my Studio Store link. Stay tuned, I will post as soon as I have images to see.
To get you really interested, Dave has provided a bit of the history of Pacific Ocean Park below, and his Web site, RIPPOP.COM, has a ton of pictures, pre, and post-mortem. Daves’ Web site is very cool, so check it out if you love old California theme park history.

“Pacific Ocean Park” or “POP” was a 28 acre space age, nautical theme park pier that operated in Santa Monica from 1958- 1967. It was created by the owners of Santa Anita Racetrack, (the LA Turf Club) and CBS television with a variety of attractions including the “Sea Serpent” Roller Coaster, the “Banana Train Ride” as well as live television broadcasts of shows like “Wink’s Dance Party.” This beautiful tile is a view of the three iconic Seahorse sculptures and “POP” bubble that stood above the Starfish entrance to the park. From 1968 – 1974 the remains of the pier became the home – base of the “Dogtown and Z-Boys” surfing phenomenon.